Hey Howdy Hey Natalie and welcome to planDisney!
While any trip to the Walt Disney World Resort is Magical, you may find a little extra Magic staying at a Disney Deluxe Resort hotel. Any of these hotels would be amazing because of the dining and recreational options and the proximity to the parks. You will want to make sure you take full advantage of the offerings and spend some time enjoying the resort. OK, let's talk reservations and theme park strategy next!
When it comes to
Theme Park Reservations, it will entirely depend on the tickets you purchased for your trip. Disney announced earlier this year that date-based tickets no longer need reservations to get into the parks. These tickets are commonly purchased online on the Disney site and are ones you have to select a start date for their validation period. Any other ticket type including Annual Passes do require a Theme Park Reservation.
If you have date-based tickets and will be visiting the parks, the reservation situation will not matter at all to you. Even if all the reservations are taken and the parks are not at capacity, you will be allowed into the parks without an issue. This will be different if you need reservations but are not able to secure any.
In the situation where you do need reservations for the parks, there may be times around the Holiday season when you may find it hard to get a reservation for a particular park. In this case, this would also depend on the specifics of your ticket. If you have the
Park Hopper Option on your ticket, you can feel free to make a reservation for another park, tap into the park and then hop to the park you want to. There are no longer time restrictions for hopping as there were earlier in the year. So if you need reservations a Magic Kingdom for Christmas Eve and they are unavailable, you can make a reservation at EPCOT, tap into EPCOT and then head to Magic Kingdom. As long as capacity limitations are not reached you will be allowed in!
There are a lot of details when it comes to reservations and hopping that are purely ticket-specific. Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of your options with your ticket type. If you have any other questions please let us know, we are always happy to help!
To Infinity and Beyond,
Nick